Doctor Who: The Savages

By IAN STUART BLACK

Based on the BBC television serial by Ian Stuart Black by arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation

1 ‘Are You Sure You Know Where We Are?’

Long before the estimated time of arrival of the TARDIS, the Doctor was looking particularly pleased with himself. He had been juggling with a number of the intricate dials on the banks of instruments that ranged across the TARDIS’s control console, making calculations, adjusting a multi-computer, and coming to conclusions that brought a dry smile to his time-weathered features.

‘It’s not always I can predict with such accuracy exactly where we are in time and space, there are often too many extraneous factors, but I think I can safely say just exactly where and when we shall materialise.’

He waved a batch of print-outs towards his two young companions. There was no point Steven or Dodo trying to check them, they were far too complicated for them to understand.

‘All right. You tell us,’ said Steven.

‘We are at a very distant point of time,’ said the Doctor confidently. ‘And at an age of great advancement, peace and prosperity.’

‘Oh, good,’ said Dodo. ‘So this will be a quiet trip?’ ‘More than likely,’ nodded the Doctor.

They recognised the change in rhythm as the TARDIS began to materialise.

‘Wherever it is, we’re there,’ said Steven.

They looked up to examine the scanner. This would be their first sight of the planet on which they had arrived, always a moment of excitement, no matter how many times such arrivals had been experienced before. The Doctor didn’t appear much interested however. He was too busy collecting an odd-looking instrument, and fitting it together until it looked like an old-fashioned ship’s compass.

But Steven and Dodo watched the outside world as it appeared on the screen above their heads. It didn’t seem to fit in at all with what the Doctor had just said. There was nothing to indicate great advancement—no signs of prosperity, in fact no signs of life at all—only a great rocky ravine spread out before them, silent, empty, bleak.

‘Are you sure?’ asked Steven.

‘About what, my boy?’

‘About where we are?’

‘Perfectly. And now I must hurry. Wait for me here. I won’t be more than five minutes. I must just check one or two things, and then I’ll be back.’

As he opened the doors of the TARDIS, both Steven and Dodo peered at the world beyond. It was exactly as the scanner had shown — perhaps even bleaker and emptier. The rocky land seemed to go rolling away as far as the eye could see. There was no sign of habitation and not even any cultivation.

‘Primitive, if you ask me,’ whispered Steven.

The Doctor was paying them no attention: his mind was clearly elsewhere as he hurried away across the stony, dusty land. Unfortunately he didn’t turn to look back or perhaps he might have changed his plans; although it’s more than probable that once the Doctor was as sure as he was on this occasion, nothing would make him change his mind.

Nevertheless, the sight of the creature in the rocks behind the TARDIS might have made him check his calculations. For what explanation could there be for such a being — powerful, dressed in animal skins, gripping a crude, vicious club — a savage-looking animal, undoubtedly human, but surely from a very early stage in man’s development, a dangerous savage who watched the Doctor with eyes that followed each move with fear and hate.

The ravine was dotted with great boulders, shrubs, bushes; and there were patches of scrubland with dry, thorny trees. Nothing seemed to grow very high, but the area was ideal cover for anyone in hiding. As the Doctor moved further away from the TARDIS, taking a path that twisted and turned through the rocks, he was totally unaware of the way that the spikey branches were moved aside so that watching eyes could follow his progress. Each step he took was noted with grim satisfaction, for he was moving closer to a saucer of rocks in which he would be surrounded, where sounds would be stifled, and the secret watchers could drop on him from all sides.

Not that the Doctor gave the slightest thought to any danger; he was far too absorbed in what he was doing, stopping every few steps to take readings from his odd instrument, making notes, nodding with satisfaction, even permitting himself a smile of approval. He didn’t even notice the slight sound of a shuffle, as though feet were moving over dry leaves, nor did he notice the shadow that fell on the rocks behind him. He was a man blissfully unaware of anything except the satisfaction of the problems of science that intrigued him to the exclusion of all else. And in this state of mind far more than five minutes passed.

Dodo was more patient than Steven; she had learned to accept the Doctor and his eccentric ways. Besides, she had great confidence in him.

But Steven couldn’t take things so easily. He strode up and down outside the TARDIS, glancing at his watch every now and again, frowning, peering down the ravine, listening, then continuing to stride up and down again.

Dodo merely sat on a rock.

‘He’s been gone far longer than five minutes,’ said Steven finally. He didn’t like to admit, even to himself, how anxious he felt. Partly because he couldn’t explain why.

‘For a man who has travelled about in time more than anyone else,’ said Dodo, ‘the Doctor seems to have less idea about it than most people... And that’s funny.’

‘This is nothing to laugh at, Dodo.’

‘Don’t take things so seriously,’ she said. If you’re worried you shouldn’t have let him go.’

‘Try telling the Doctor what to do,’ said Steven. ‘Then you should have gone with him.’

‘He didn’t give me a chance. He was out of that door, and off like a shot, with that ridiculous calculator of his.’

‘Don’t just complain, Steven. Do something about it.’

He glared at Dodo relaxing on her rock. In a way, he wished he could take life as easily as she did, but he knew he couldn’t.

‘Very well,’ he said, ‘I will do something!’

He turned in the direction the Doctor had taken and began to move cautiously through the rocks and trees. For a second he thought he saw something on the cliff above him. It seemed as if something moved, but he wasn’t sure. It was probably a trick of the light. One’s eyes took a little time to get used to real sunshine after spending so long in the TARDIS. He moved on.

The Doctor was fond of this particular calculator of his. He had always found it accurate, and it was giving him some most satisfactory readings.

‘Precisely what I thought,’ he muttered to himself. ‘My young friends are going to get quite a surprise.’

He moved on towards the rocks ahead. They would be a fine place from which to take a final reading, in spite of the confounded bushes, rather like brambles, that grew across his path and made the going difficult.

They were also very thick across the track, so thick that it would have been impossible to see the two shapes lying huddled on the ground, watching the Doctor at ground level, seeing his feet pass by just a yard or two away. And after he had gone, a hand reached out and clutched the primitive club in the bushes, the hand that took it being rough-skinned and tanned by all weathers. As the figure crouched low, his mop of hair fell across his savage face. Just behind him, a second figure edged forward to join him, armed in the same way, and dressed in similar crude animal skins. They waited until the Doctor was behind a tall outcrop of rock, then they moved in behind him.

Steven looked back to discover the TARDIS was no longer in sight, but there was still no sign of the Doctor. He was uneasy about going further. Maybe the Doctor would go in a circle and come back another way. But Steven hadn’t much hope in that.

He stood on a rock and shouted, ‘Doctor, where are you?’

In the distance the Doctor came to a stop. He had a twinge of guilt. Perhaps he’d been away more than five minutes.

‘Dear me,’ he said. ‘What’s the matter now?’ Then he called back, ‘I won’t be long.’

He was very anxious to make this last reading. It wouldn’t take long and he hurriedly set up the adjustors, his attention only on the machine.

If he had turned, he could not have helped seeing the two figures closing in on him, moving from bush to bush, revealing not only their fierce anger, but also a constant fear which made them tremble even as they prepared to attack — a fear which made them drop instantaneously to the ground as the Doctor turned casually to look around. He frowned crossly as he heard Steven still calling in the distance: ‘Doctor... Doctor.’

Sitting on her rock, Dodo could hear him as well. She wondered how far away he was. The voice sounded quite distant. But a much closer sound brought her to her feet with a start. A trickle of pebbles came tumbling down the side of the ravine close to her. She looked up to see what had caused it, but there was nothing there. She suddenly felt very much on her own, and wished Steven hadn’t gone. She also wished the Doctor was there. Still, there was no need for alarm... Perhaps those pebbles... She couldn’t help herself. She spun round with a scream. Up above, peering down on her from the rocks, was a terrifying figure — a man covered in skins, holding a spear, looking at her with a frightening expression. She heard Steven shouting, ‘Dodo... Dodo’, and there was the sound of someone racing through the scrub towards her.

She was standing with her face hidden in her hands as Steven reached her.

He grabbed her. ‘What is it? What’s the matter?’

‘Up there,’ was all she could say. She pointed to the side of the ravine that rose above them.

He stared up. Blue sky backed the rocky ridge. All was silent, nothing moved.

‘There’s nothing there.’

‘There was a man. I saw him with a spear. Dressed in skins. Watching me.’

Steven scanned the peaceful scene. ‘Are you sure? The Doctor said..

‘I don’t care what he said. He’s made a mistake. I saw him. A savage. Right out of the stone age.’

‘So we’re not in the future at all. The Doctor’s wrong. He’s got the wrong distant point of time. We must be back at the beginning of Man.’

The Doctor had just completed his last reading and began to fold up the calculator into its container. And, what was more, he was cheerfully pleased with his final result.

‘So, they thought I might have made a mistake, did they? Doubting the Doctor’s ability, eh?’

He looked forward to convincing his fellow travellers, and turned to retrace his steps to the TARDIS very briskly.

In the bushes the two men watched him, uncertain what to do. To wait? To attack? To turn and run? The leader kept his ground, whispering, ‘Wait, Tor. Wait.’

But the man addressed as Tor was trembling. ‘He’s coming, Chal. We have no chance. His light gun...

‘That’s no light gun,’ said Chal softly. They stared through the undergrowth at the object the stranger carried.

The Doctor strode jauntily towards them. Doubts beset Tor. ‘He’s not one of our people,’ said Chal grimly. He put his hand on Tor’s arm, trying to reassure him. He could feel the big man shaking with alarm.

‘We must run,’ whispered Tor. ‘Before he sees us.’ ‘We stay,’ whispered Chal fiercely. ‘And we kill this man.’

Perhaps the Doctor owed his life to the fact that the strap of his calculator got caught on a bush and he stopped to undo it. As he did so, the faint noise he had heard before was repeated. He wasn’t in the least alarmed. It was as though it was something he had been expecting.

‘Hello there,’ called the Doctor, still adjusting the strap. ‘Come out, if you please. There is absolutely no need for you to be alarmed.’

Whether or not Chal heard him, or whether he understood, made no difference. He took a murderous grip of his club and whispered ‘Now’ to Tor. He had begun to move from the cover of the bushes when Tor grabbed him and dragged him back.

‘You fool,’ whispered Chal, but he saw Tor was looking beyond him, over his head.

‘Look,’ said Tor.

Then Chal saw two figures just beyond the Doctor, and he and Tor both threw themselves on the ground.

Apparently the Doctor noticed none of this as he finally tugged his strap clear of the bushes. Besides, he was too busy continuing his conversation with the unseen strangers behind him.

‘Can’t you hear me?’ asked the Doctor casually. ‘After all, surely you expected me? I’ll be disappointed if you didn’t.’

He turned sharply as two men stepped from the shadow of the rocks.

‘There you are,’ the Doctor greeted them. ‘I thought you were around somewhere. Good of you to come along.’

They were standing a few yards away, both dressed in what the Doctor took to be the uniform of some advanced culture, although a touch too military for his taste, and he noted with disapproval that they carried light guns of considerable power and sophistication; but, he supposed, they had to take precautions to protect themselves against the unknown.

What did please him was the look of the two men, well-built, carrying themselves with great assurance, with a pleasant manner, and a cultivated bearing; tall, attractive, showing deference to him as they would to someone they respected.